Title: Traitor’s Gate
Author: Simon Morden
Date of First Publication: 2000
Place of Publication: Hideous Progeny
Type: Short Story
Characters: No Character
Themes: ANDROID; POSTHUMAN; BYRONIC HERO; MAD SCIENTIST/MONSTER; RACE/POLITICS; RETRO SF
Critical Summary: The story begins with Paul Lambert standing in the house of Sir Evelyn Malahide (the father of Lambert’s beloved and confidant to the Prime Minister) with a revolver hidden against the small of his back. He’s there to assassinate the Prime Minister Lord Salisbury, on behalf of the Catholic Church. However, this information is unkown to everyone but Lambert himself. Bonapart, Sir Evelyn’s reanimated house golem, ushers the Prime Minister into the home. Inside, Malahide and Salisbury discuss Wingrove, the personal physician of the Queen, and how he was killed by the Catholics. Wingrove’s decapitated head, with eyes and mouth sewn shut, is hanging between Salisbury’s shoulder blades. As dinner is being served, Lambert has a change of heart as Louise (his beloved) is present. He doesn’t want her to see him as a murderer. And so he leaves the house and heads over to a secret mass held in a dark alley.
Afterwards, Louise and Lambert are together in a public area, when a stranger sits down at their table demanding to speak to both of them. The stranger tells Louise that Lambert is a papist working as a spy and assassin for the church. He then details the plan that the Prime Minister and the Queen are currently undertaking. They plan on taking the head of Wingrove and sewing it on another body, theoretically bringing the physician back to life. The ultimate plan is to do the same thing for the Queen as well, essentially making her immortal. It turns out that Sir Evelyn has volunteered Louise’s body for the Queen. However, Wingrove is the only one who can operate on the Queen, so it’s imperative that he comes back from the dead. The church has access to this information because Bonapart has been secretly informing them of the goings-on inside the Malahide home. Horrified and angry, Louise decides to help Lambert and the church foil the Prime Minister’s plan.
Lambert and Louise make their way to Sir Evelyn’s office in Parliament. There they trick Evelyn into letting them see the Prime Minister’s office. Once they get there, Lambert pulls out his gun and points it at the Prime Minister. Evelyn turns around and struggles with Lambert over the weapon, when Louise hits her father over the head with a lamp. Lambert then chases the Prime Minister down a long corridor and shoots him three times, with the last shot aimed at Wingrove’s head, to make sure he can’t come back from the dead. The Prime Minister’s body falls outside onto the terrace, which many people see. Lambert runs away and attempts to jump into the Thames River, but gets shot in the back. Everything goes dark as he falls into the water.
Lambert has one last memory of being jolted awake, hearing two men speaking about the lack of brain activity, then falling back into darkness.
The concept of reanimation or bringing the dead back from the dead is clearly derived from Frankenstein. Malahide is obviously the mad scientist, and Bonapart his creation. The Creature destroyed everything in Victor’s life, and similarly in Traitor’s Gate, Bonapart is the main reason why the Malahide’s plan was foiled. In both stories, the creation was the cause of loss for the creator. Although Bonapart is viewed as a monster without a soul, his creator is even more so, electing his own daughter’s body for the Queen’s use. In the end, Malahide, Lord Salisbury, and the Queen are seen as the true monsters, while Bonapart played a part in foiling their plans. All in all, the themes revolving around androids, mad-scientist/monsters, race/politics, and retro-science-fiction are all present here.
Administrative Notes: Ho Sun Lee, CSUF; Dr. David Sandner (editing)